Josef Margaretten, a 35 year old Hasidic resident in Monsey,
suffered minor injuries from a paintball shot fired by three suspects who were
taken into custody and charged with a hate crime almost immediately after the
attack just before midnight Wednesday, The Journal news reports.

There was no evidence that the two men and a women charged
in the attack were part of any organized group, investigators said.

According to the report, Margaretten and another man were
leaning against a car on Rita Avenue at 11:48 p.m. Wednesday when a vehicle
drove up and a man pointed what looked like a black rifle at them from the
passenger window, Ramapo Sgt. Sal Matos said. “Five or six shots were fired
from the car, with Margaretten hit twice and the car struck three or four
times, Matos said. “It was a powerful paint gun with 3/4-inch diameter balls,”
he said.

“The victim and the witness both stated that they heard
someone yell ‘(expletive) Jew’ as they drove past them,” Matos said. All three
were charged with felony second-degree assault as a hate crime as well as two
misdemeanor counts of second-degree aggravated harassment and counts of
fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and third-degree criminal
tampering, court papers show.

The Kaser incident occurred amid rising tensions in Ramapo
between the large Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish population and the town’s equally
large immigrant and black populations over public school funding and zoning
issues.

“Until such times as we find a way to begin to live in some
kind of harmony, we will have more of these incidences,” said Wilbur Aldridge,
a West Haverstraw resident and regional director of the Mid-Hudson-Westchester
chapter of the NAACP.

“Ramapo is a very ethnically diverse community and there is
zero tolerance for anyone to attack anyone in our community,” Supervisor
Christopher St. Lawrence said at a news conference. Yossi Gestetner, a
community activist urged calm.

“I don’t want people to get over-excited,” he
told the Journal news. “It’s a serious case. It’s not a joke.

But I don’t want people to push buttons that will not be
helpful and will divide our town and communities more than (it) already is.”